Dearest Joshua,

Xin Nien Kuai Le! It’s the year of Water Dragon!

Hope you are well as usual! Hartelijk dank voor je oneindige gebeden! I really appreciate it. I do hope you agree with me that we can make our correspondences public again – it is a new year ahead of us anyway!

Your thoughts about ‘acceleration process’ is interesting. If things can go faster, why do we need to make it slower? I do agree with your statement but I doubt it can be generalised. We can apply that ‘principal’ (maybe) in various governmental bureaucracies but things that involve ‘creatures’ like us, it is much more complicated. We always want fast-ripened fruits but we know that fast-ripened using various ripening agents are not as sweet as the naturally-ripened fruits.

We see in various parts in Indonesia (and maybe also other parts of the world) that children aged three or four are taught to read, write, and calculate. Mrs. Lies, one of my career mentors, always reminds me of the balance between the right and left brain – between IQ and EQ, and also many other ‘quotients’. These children may well be smart but are they emotionally ready to face the challenges in real life? Do they have enough time to explore their own identity – not their parents’? I may well say this from much more ‘western perspective’ but I do believe that this is important aspects to consider.

Source: Mercedes Benz

In late 2004, just when I entered university, I had such deep regret. Regret of not getting into ‘accelerated program’ during junior and senior high school which would have ‘saved’ me 2 years in my life and getting to university at younger age. Now? I am actually grateful that I got through the whole process of ‘ordinary program’ – I had my own ‘bad experience’ in a fast-tracked program.  That way, I had enough time to really discover myself and find out what I really want. This is the same advice I keep on giving to my mentees. It is not just finding out about ourselves but also the ‘destination’ or ‘dreams’ we want to achieve inside-out. We may dream to be a zoo keeper, but do we know how and what this kind of job is like?

I think I have to stop here. It is getting late and I still have things to do. I promise I will answer your other question about ‘my culture shock and adaptation’ in Indonesia – after 7 years leaving this country. Please do drop your thoughts about ‘acceleration processes’. Would you agree on accelerated education program?

Oremus pro invicem

Best wishes from Bandung,

Hosea

Note to the readers: it has been awhile since I wrote Letters to Joshua (LtJ). I had to stop and blog selectively due to external circumstances.  My apology for this and I would like to express my gratitude to my blog readers who ceaselessly expressing their interests in the continuation of LtJ.

Some of Liem (Linggadjaja) Family in Xin Tjia 2012 Gathering in Bandung, Indonesia

To all my Chinese readers and those who celebrate Lunar Year Calendar

My family and I,

Wish you happiness, success and filled with peace, hope and togetherness of your family and friends in this Year of the Water Dragon…

Wishing you Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Cold Spring Harbor, NY (2009)

There is a journey awaiting us
It comes in truth and promise
When we reach the point
of not knowing who we are or where to go
This most precious but often painful passage
is the journey of ourselves
We will travel to places never before visited,
Where we meet unspoken fears and unearth buried truths
We will climb high and perilous mountains…
those that rise up from inside ourselves

We will explore forgotten waters held deep in the sea of your soul
We will be stranded in the wilderness
and find a way through pathless land
We will be lost before we are found…
We will be empty before we are full
We will cry the deep sobs of the earth
and tears of rain will cleanse the house around our heart
In time…because life, like birth and death, knows its own time
Our fears and struggles and unknowing will be transformed
We will become a mountain place where eagles soar
Wewill become a reflecting pool
which sees and knows the mysteries of our life

Our heart will be light like a butterfly
as we follow the currents of its true desires
The flight of the honeybee will be ours
as we seek the nectar of what brings sweetens to our daily life
Most of all we will become who we truly are
Our life will hold truth and promise and meaning
And the heart of the heavens will hold our heart.

by Susan Squellati Florence (with my alteration)

Faith makes all things possible,

Hope makes all things work,

Love makes all things beautiful,

May you have all the three for this Christmas.

MERRY CHRISTMAS and wishing you a fabulous 2012,

with full of great achievements and experiences.

A meaningful chapter waiting to be written Happy New Year !!

Non-academic published Article #37

One very often wonders at present how technology has changed our modern society. Now, it seems to me that the 21^st century society is inseparable with its technology especially in the way we learn; in education and research sectors. If you asked twenty university students today what they thought of the most remarkable technology advancement, eleven of them would reply, internet and the rest would reply, mobile phones. The marriage between these two (informatics and telecommunications, respectively) is known as telematics. Many people know telematics as Informatics and Communication Technology or ICT.

John Desmond Bernal, the famous scientist for X-Ray Crystallography once wrote in 1939 in his book ‘The Social Function of Science’ that ‘The inefficiency and the imperfect organization of individual research laboratories is by no means the most serious disability from which scientific research suffers (p. 113)’ In his book, he also added that it does not only relevant in research coordination but also in teaching and science curriculum, scientific publications and peer-reviews, and public policy. I believe he would be very much happier living in ‘our digital age’. Why so? Let us look at what we have now. As mere scientists in training who can boast no ICT education, I can only share what I have been observing and practicing what ICT could do and contribute to science. Science Online London 2010 Conference last September spelled out some of the main importance of online science – making scientists 2.0 – scientists with ICT.

Full article: click here

Published in Campus Asia, May-July edition, page 58-59